"Attractive" jihadist fighters can be "eye candy" to lure in British Muslim girls, a former extremist has said.

Ayesha - a false name to protect her identity - told BBC Newsnight she was taught to see the UK as "our enemy".

She now rejects that ideology, but said her ex-allies would regard the militant known as "Jihadi John" as an "idol".

Three schoolgirls recently left the UK, apparently to join militants in Syria - leading to questions over why British girls would make that choice.

Ayesha, from the Midlands, is now in her early 20s and said she was first contacted by extremists when she was a student aged 16 or 17.

She said a man sent her a Facebook message saying she was "very attractive" and telling her: "Now's the time to cover that beauty because you're so precious."

Ayesha said the message was "bordering on harassment" but it was the "best way I could have been targeted" because it played on her religious beliefs and told her she would "end up in hell" if she did not obey.

'Exciting'

And she said there was glamour as well as fear in what she saw.

"As a teenager I wanted to get my piece of eye candy and I'd take a good look, and all the YouTube videos, for some reason, they [the militants] were all really, really attractive.

"It was glamorous in the sense it was like 'oh wow, I can get someone who practises the same religion as me, who's not necessarily from my ethnicity and that's exciting'."